SWAPO is founded to challenge South African rule

Students trained in nonviolent action began coordinated sit-ins at segregated Nashville lunch counters. Workshops and local organizing prepared them to face hostility and arrest. The campaign...

The PAC’s anti-pass campaign called on people to leave passes behind and present themselves for arrest. Police killed 69 people at Sharpeville and also fired on protesters at Langa. Demonstrators...

Thousands marched from Langa and Nyanga to police headquarters in central Cape Town. Philip Kgosana led the peaceful demonstration amid opposition to pass laws and repression after the shootings....

The government banned the ANC and PAC following the anti-pass protests and declaration of emergency. The bans criminalized central organizations of African political opposition and forced changes in...

Student activists met at Shaw University on 15–17 April at Ella Baker’s invitation and formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. They shared experiences and developed an independent...

Togo became independent after a period of French administration as a United Nations trust territory. Nationalist campaigning challenged outside authority and demanded sovereignty. The transfer of...

A new federal law required preservation of election records and provided procedures for addressing discriminatory denial of voting rights. It strengthened tools available against exclusion, amid...

Following months of sit-ins, local pressure and negotiations, several downtown Nashville lunch counters began serving Black customers on a nonsegregated basis. Student organization helped change...

Police broke up a gathering at Ngquza Hill and killed at least eleven participants. The meeting belonged to the Mpondo resistance against imposed Bantu Authorities and coercive rural rule. The...

Madagascar became fully independent following negotiations, after decades of anticolonial struggle and severe repression of the 1947 uprising. Sovereignty ended formal French rule. The outcome...